Endless Heights

2 November 2013 | 10:17 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Explosive punk outfit, Endless Heights have come out of the woodwork in the last few years. Hailing from the thriving punk and hardcore community in Sydney, it's no suprise listeners are anticipating getting their hands on the band's upcoming debut LP, New Bloom. Killyourstereo.com catches up with guitarist, Jem Siow to find out how the band are preparing for the release and what they think about the Australian music scene. 

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Explosive punk outfit, Endless Heights have come out of the woodwork in the last few years. Hailing from the thriving punk and hardcore community in Sydney, it's no suprise listeners are anticipating getting their hands on the band's upcoming debut LP, New Bloom. Killyourstereo.com catches up with guitarist, Jem Siow to find out how the band are preparing for the release and what they think about the Australian music scene. 

So you guys are just about to release your first full length, New Bloom. Excited?

The most excited we’ve been about anything so far, it has been a long time coming.

Can you tell us a bit about the album, the kind of mood you guys went for and what sounds, bands and experiences that influenced the final product?

Simply, we wrote this record for ourselves. We all really enjoy what we do in this band and we knew this record was an opportunity for us to make something special, so we wrote it together free of any creative limitations or preconceived ideas that would otherwise hold us back. We wanted to be especially honest with ourselves; if it sounded good, we did it.  Christian and I wrote most of the songs together and we listen to bands like Circa Survive, American Football, Snapcase, Pinback and just a whole spectrum of stuff. So you might hear influences from a bunch of places. Having Clay Segelov at the Brain Studios help produce us during the recording phase was really great, I feel he realised what we wanted to achieve sonically and really pushed us into areas we may have hesitated going towards on our own.

What was it like working with Wil Yip in the studio? Were you guys the ones bossing him around, or did he play a fair part in the choices that you made?

Will mixed and mastered our record and we communicated with him over the internet. If we were given the chance to choose any one person to work with, it was him and it happened! A real special experience for us. He was extremely helpful and I really feel he cared about what we wanted to achieve, and worked much harder on this record than I ever expected seeing as we’re such a small name band compared to the artists he mostly works with. We love everything he’s done, we literally told him to just work his magic and this is how it came out. Thanks Will.

What kinds of things are the band up to at the moment in preparation for the release of New Bloom?

We plan on touring a lot next year, and that’s being worked out now. I guess we just want people to hear it so we’re finding cool ways to make that possible, it’s fun because working with Broken Hive is just working with our friends and we in the band are all real involved, learning and trying new things in this whole record-releasing process.

What was the writing process like for New Bloom? Did you find it more consuming than that of your previous EPs?

We wrote from the end of January up until June. Definitely, it was much more consuming. Firstly we cared more than we ever have about this, and it was the most amount of songs we’ve ever had to write in one go as well.

What was it like starting out as a punk band in Sydney? Did you find the scene there helped boost your band somewhat into stardom?

(laughs) I would not use ‘stardom’ to describe our situation in the slightest. But we are all still real young, and when we started we were friends in highschool even younger. We are always learning and discovering more about ourselves, and what we want. We just wanted to play in a band as friends, that’s all we knew! When we started our first friends were mostly older than us and they looked out for us from the beginning. Bands like Relentless, Phantoms, Hopeless, Break Even, The Broderick, Northlane amongst others were real bros to us and helped us come to where we are now.

What do you think of the punk music scene as a whole at the moment? Do you think things like the Internet and downloading have improved or hampered it in the last few years?

The scene is awesome, there are heaps of great bands and the internet plays a huge role in getting them out there. Surely there are some negative aspects to downloading and that, but the positives from social media and the like really outweigh it.

Do you guys exclusively listen to and draw from punk music, or do you have any other interests and influences as well?

We sound the way we do because we listen to literally everything. Diaz listens to death metal. Matt listens to psychedelic trance. Like, they fully listen to that stuff. I play classical flute full-time outside of the band. But our strongest influences are definitely from punk, rock, indie and hardcore bands.

Endless Heights are about to go on tour with Daylight around Australia pretty soon, where are you most looking forward to playing?


Sydney will be great. It will be our 3rd all ages home town show this year and our first after releasing the album.

What’s your opinion on stage diving and do you think the band playing has a responsibility to keep the crowd safe?

If you go to hardcore shows you should know what to do. Don’t fight at shows.

Which tracks on New Bloom are you guys most excited to play on the upcoming tour?


We’re playing a few off the record and I’m real psyched about all of them! Have a few new pedals to muck around with [too].

Name three different Aussie bands that you’d love to tour with in the next year.


Postblue, Royal Headache, Parkway Drive

What is the worst and best thing about touring and being on the road?

The worst part is absolutely cleaning out and dropping off the van at the end. We love swimming and eating.

Finally, good luck for the release, we’re very much looking forward to it.

Thanks heaps. Hope you like it.